Must Read Management Topics

Many feel 2011 was a bad year. Beginning in January with the shooting in Tucson AZ that killed six people and wounded 13, including US Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, it looked like that start of a rough year. The economy was struggling; unemployment was high. When a massive earthquake and tsunami devastated Japan in March, with tremendous loss of life, the stock markets plunged again. But there were positive events too.

The Arab Spring saw first Tunisia and then Egypt rise up and overthrow dictators. Libya followed in October. The spring also saw the British royal wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton, which reassured many of the stability of those institutions. September was the start of the popular uprising called Occupy Wall Street, a series of protests against social and economic inequality.

These and other positive events late in the year have many people hopeful that 2012 will be a better year for them personally and professionally. We share that hope for all our readers.

The Top Management Topics

11. Do Today To Be Better Manager This article lists ten specific actions you can take to improve your skill as a manager. The recommendation is to tackle a new one each day and get through the list in two weeks. Then be sure to print the list and hang it somewhere where you will see it every day.

10. Management Tips This is a list of quick tips designed to help you improve as a manager.

They are separated into seven categories, including business management, motivation, quality management, and leadership.

9. What Is A Leader This article defines what a leader is and what the traits of a successful leader are. These straight-forward bullet points provide specific behaviors you can model as you work to become a better leader.

7. Cost Benefit Analysis Managers have to make many decisions every day. Some are easy. Some have fixed guidelines you have to follow. Others are more difficult. The cost benefit analysis is a tool that manager can use to help them reach a decision. Although it is primarily used for financial decisions, it can make almost any decision you have to make a little easier, and more often correct.

6. Customer Satisfaction Survey Customer Satisfaction is critical to the success of your business. Regardless of whether you are selling to the general public, have a specialty product that is used by only a few companies, or all the clients for your services are internal to your own company, you need to know whether they are satisfied. If they aren't fully satisfied, you need to know what their dissatisfaction is so you can fix it. The Customer Satisfaction Survey is a way you can ask them directly.

5. Management 101 This is a basic look at management. It explains what management is, and what it isn't.

It summarizes the four primary tasks of a manager (plan, organize, direct, and control) and links to detailed explanations of each of them.

4. Project Management 101 This article explains the basics of Project Management and details the four things project managers must manage simultaneously, resources, time, money, and scope. This is a multi-page article and the successive pages explain the management of these elements is detail.

3. Pareto's Principle, 80-20 Rule The 80/20 rule says that 80 percent of something can be attributed to 20% of the driving factor. For example, 20% of the sales force will sell 80% of the products sold, 80 percent of the failures will occur in 20 percent of the products, 20 percent of the employees will cause 80 percent of a manager's headaches. This article explains the limitations of Pareto's Principle and explains how you can use it to make your job easier.

2. Job Interview Questions to Ask Making the right hiring decisions is key to a manager's success. This article tells you the three things you need to ask potential employees and how to interpret their answers. These are core business questions, not trick questions designed to confuse the candidate, and they will help you make the right choice.

1. Key Performance IndicatorsMost managers today are pushed to produce results, but how do you know if they are the right things to be working on? Key Performance Indicators are a tool that you can use to objectively measure your progress in the areas that is essential to the success of your unit and your company. And they give you a way to demonstrate to your boss that you are succeeding in the things that really matter.​